Al Jolson

Are hip-hop artists such as Flavor Flav and Lil Wayne the new generation of black minstrels -- the African American jesters who used to entertain audiences with cartoonish, racially stereotypical shtick before the collapse of the Jim Crow South?

According to a just-published book, "Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy From Slavery to Hip-Hop," the answer may well be yes. And that's not necessarily an entirely bad thing, according to authors Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen, both Chicago journalists.

Their book is a fascinating and authoritative critical history that traces the roots of minstrelsy back to Africa...

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Are hip-hop artists such as Flavor Flav and Lil Wayne the new generation of black minstrels -- the African American jesters who used to entertain audiences with cartoonish, racially stereotypical shtick before the collapse of the Jim Crow South? ...